The Quantum Vacuum and Inertia

In 1994, using a semi-classical technique in physics known as Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED), B. Haisch, A. Rueda and H. Puthoff published the hypothesis that inertia may originate in interactions between the electromagnetic zero-point field of the quantum vacuum and the quarks and electrons constituting matter (Phys. Rev. A, 49, 678, 1994). This SED analysis suggested that Newton's equation of motion (F=ma), heretofore regarded as a postulate of physics, might be derivable from Maxwell's equations as applied to the electromagnetic zero-point field. This led to a NASA-funded study beginning in 1996 at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto and the California State University in Long Beach. That study found the more general result that the relativistic equation of motion could be derived from consideration of the Poynting vector of the zero-point field in accelerated reference frames, again within the context (and limitations) of SED (Physics Letters A, 240, 115, 1998; Foundations of Physics, 28, 1057, 1998). Inertia, rather than being merely an intrinsic property of matter, appears in this approach to be an electromagnetic reaction force due to the electromagnetic zero-point field of the quantum vacuum, provided that the approximations of SED are valid.

The zero-point field of stochastic electrodynamics (SED) is similar to the quantum fluctuations one finds in modern quantum field theory (QFT). But the random SED electromagnetic fields and the quantum field fluctuations are far from identical, and the mathematical techniques are radically different. SED uses classical electrodynamics, whereas QFT represents the fluctuations as creation and annihilation operators acting on the vacuum. Modern QFT is an amazingly accurate description of nature. In Feynman's popular-level book "QED" for example he presents, in the Introduction, the example of agreement between theory and prediction to 12 significant figures for the magnetic moment of the electron. The challenge is therefore to see whether the possibly significant connection between the ZPF of SED and the inertia of matter can be successfully translated into the more sophisticated and precise formulation of QFT. Can quantum field theory yield an analogous interpretation of inertia and how would this relate to the Higgs field? Indeed, even when the Higgs particle is finally detected, it will continue to be a legitimate question to ask whether the inertia of matter as a reaction force opposing acceleration is an intrinsic or extrinsic property of matter.